Tag Archives: regionalism

Francis Fukuyama’s commentary “How should we measure governance?” has provoked a series of replies at the governance blog, inter alia reactions from Bo Rothstein, Thomas Risse, and Shiv Visvanathan. This might be a good starting point if you want to think about governance as such or the quantification / measurement problem in IR.

An article about desperate grad students who turn to external career advisors in order to improve their job prospects in academia has upset Steve Saideman. So, just don’t do it and go to your supervisor instead, is what he’s advising.

On the American side of the pond, positivist or game-theoretical behaviorist or rationalist modeling approaches dominate the literature; it’s just silly, from my perspective. It’s based on assumptions which bear no relationship to the real world. People like it because it’s intellectually elegant: they don’t have to learn any languages, they don’t have to read any history, and they can pretend they’re scientists discussing universals. Intellectually, it’s ridiculous.

The Third Africa-South America Summit concluded a week ago or so, following-up on the two others held in Nigeria in 2006 and in Venezuela in 2009. Participants are calling for more cooperation and South-South unity.

Former Chief Justice of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal, Ariranga Pillay, reflects about the reasons why the Tribunal has been suspended and attacks South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma.

NAFTA at 20! The Congressional Research Service provides an overview and trade effects for the last 20 years. Interesting if you want to put your hands on the topic.

And, finally, some Pope election coverage shouldn’t be missing since the conclave preparations get into top gear. The Making Electoral Democracy Work project has set up the Vote for Pope website which provides insights about different electoral systems and invites us to take part in a fictional Pope election. Check it out. (via The Monkey Cage)